Travel / How does wizz air compare with ryanair? [32]

Once. Another time it could be just on the contrary. I don't say so that it's never so the delay is the fault of the airline and not the weather conditions, but I think they are comparable.

Wizzair is more expensive.

Study / How long can students stay in a university in Poland? [11]


And this way it works :)

In Poland you don't have entry exams, so it's easier in terms of this.

And the university gets paid for a student from the government, so for them it's so that the more students, the better.

Po polsku / Czy ma Brexit skutki dla Polski? [14]

1) dziękuję
2) poprawienie (powiedziałbym raczej: za to że poprawiłeś moją wiadomość)
3) tylko jest niepotrzebne
4) grozi rasizmem
5) To jest bardzo trudna sprawa
6) czy chciałeś napisać: Anglia już nie należy do Europy (England doesn't belong to Europe any more)?
7) dla polskich imigrantów w Anglii (albo: dla Polonii w Anglii - Polonia to po polsku polscy emigranci)
8) podróżujących
9) Niemiec :)
10) krajów UE (das ist doch kein Deutsch, das ist Polnisch :) )

Myślę że Brytyjczycy, i ludzie z innych krajów europejskich, w Polsce nie spotkają się z rasizmem. Dużo gorzej jest w przypadku osób z krajów arabskich. Wiadomo, że większość z nich to całkowicie normalni ludzie, ale za sprawą mediów (w tym głównie Internetu) kojarzą się oni Polakom (zresztą myślę, że podobnie jest w całej Europie) albo z terrorystami (przed którymi przecież uciekają), albo z gwałcicielami, albo ze wszelkiego innego rodzaju przestępcami.

Po polsku / Czy ma Brexit skutki dla Polski? [14]

Najpierw poprawię błędy, bo odnoszę wrażenie, że tego oczekujesz i nie masz nic przeciwko :)

0) z Wielką Brytanią, Polską, Europą
1) po Brexicie
2) oznacza
2.1) oznacza, że (nie można pominąć "że", to nie angielski ani niemiecki)
3) tańsze
4) stanie
5) np.
6) rolnymi

Na razie Brexitu jeszcze nie ma, i nie wiadomo czy będzie (bo Wielka Brytania nie podjęła jeszcze odpowiedniej procedury i raczej im się z tym nie spieszy), tak więc ciężko mówić o jakichś konsekwencjach.

Dwie podstawowe rzeczy jakie miały miejsce po ogłoszeniu wyników referendum to:
1) fala agresji przeciwko Polakom w Wielkiej Brytanii
2) osłabienie się polskiej waluty (choć nieznaczne, i tak od kilku miesięcy jest ona stosunkowo słaba) - tendencja jeśli chodzi o kurs euro względem złotego była spadkowa, a w momencie ogłoszenia wyników referendum kurs nagle skoczył w górę, potem spadł (ale nie do takiego poziomu jaki był w momencie referendum), ale od początku tego tygodnia tendencja jest znów wzrostowa

Jeśli chodzi o polskie produkty w Wielkiej Brytanii, to wydaje mi się, że ich rynek jest tam zorientowany pod polskich imigrantów, więc dopóki oni tam pozostaną, wiele się nie zmieni. Oczywiście jeśli wprowadzone zostaną cła, to ceny będą musiały wzrosnąć.

Study / How long can students stay in a university in Poland? [11]

Even if you don't have the money for the tuition, you can start your studies from the beginning however many times you want. And nothing can stop you.

You pay if you need to repeat a course (exactly, if you don't pass the exam just after it and neither a semester later), but you can always repeat the whole study and you don't have to pay for that.

Travel / London to Krakow travel by Road [22]


Still not proper border checks, but random ones. There will be, however, permanent control just at the border, they will just select random cars, not check all of them. So there shouldn't be queues.

Study / How long can students stay in a university in Poland? [11]

He could stop his studies and start them from the beginning. Even for a few times.

Feedback / Stupid limitation on the quotation length [20]

It has already been proven that there is such a need.

When I refer to a piece of text, the whole point of quotations is to quote the whole text I refer to. Otherwise I could just use no quotation at all and put the nickname of the person the post of I answer to... Who else disagrees with that?

Unfortunately the error is still not fixed.
See here: polishforums.com/law/poland-days-requirement-applying-driving-license-78336/#msg1559579
I had to cut the quotation from the legal act, because it was impossible to quote it in a standard way, as on each other forum...

It is not an error -it's a feature. There are limits of quoted text.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]


"Przylepka" sounds generally like something sticky or being sticked. Compare it with "nalepka", which actually means "sticker".[/quote]
I understand it so that when you slice this end piece of the loaf, it fits to its place. And only there. "Normal" slices are all of more or less the same size.

About the flour types - actually, I am not sure, what's the English terminology. Isn't it actually so that all the bakery products are called "bread" (in Polish: pieczywo)? Then the Polish classification is just different.

In English the main category is "bread" (as equivalent of Polish "pieczywo"), and the main division seems to be between just bread (in loaves) and bread roll or bun (which is small and often circular, although not always).

In Polish the main category is "pieczywo", and it can be divided into two types: "chleb" and "bułka". Chleb is in loafs and it contains rye flour (wheat flour usually as well, but the proportion might be different, depending on the type of the "chleb"). Almost everything else is called "bułka". From the bread-like (loafy) things - although it goes more in the direction of cakes - you will find also "chała" (a kind of sweet bread shaped as a braid, it's of Jewish origin) and "ciasto drożdżowe" (yeast cake). From smaller things - "rogal" (croissanty-like thing, I would say a croissant is a subtype of "rogal")And, of course, a whole variety of sweet buns ("bułka słodka", "drożdżówka"). For sure I have forgotten about something.

Language / The "end piece" of a loaf of bread in Polish [80]

I don't know what's the point of digging out a 3-year topic, but answering to the original question, the end piece of a loaf of bread is, at least for me, przylepka.

Although this word may differ in different regions in different cities. I am from the area of Łódź.

The word "dupka" is also used, but sometimes you may want to avoid it, as it comes from "dupa" - "ass". Even though it makes sense.

Talking about regionalisms, the most known example is a kind of bun/bread roll, which is of the size and shape of a loaf of bread. But it doesn't contain rye flour, it's made of wheat flour only, that's why it's not bread, it's a bread roll.

It looks like this:



In my area it's called "angielka", but, actually, literally each city in Poland has its own word for this.

Feedback / Stupid limitation on the quotation length [20]

Ok, if it's fixed now, I will confirm after checking it, but in a topic created on Wednesday this problem was still present.

Is it no way to fix it also in the older topics?

Before a moment I had to slice into half even such a short quotation:



!

Language / How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish [22]


Yeah, and here you can see how Polish family jumps into competences of the English home.

Feedback / Stupid limitation on the quotation length [20]

Unfortunately, the problem still hasn't been solved. Even in new topics I cannot make quotations longer than 1-2 lines.

Language / Polish keyboard 214 is best [34]



But sometimes you want to write something, like a headline, using capital letters only. And then it's a problem.

I have seen headlines in capitals, where ą and ę were small letters (it doesn't usually happen, because, as qwertyuiop mentioned, noone in Poland uses 214 - maybe only some people accustomed to typewriters, where it was the standard layout, and learnt to type sightlessly) - and it looks just weird.

I don't know if any company even produces keyboards with the 214 layout.

If you are a foreigner, then:
- if you are accustomed to the English or the American keyboard (or any other similiar to them), you should use the "programmer's" layout (with Polish letters under right Alt, or left Alt+Ctrl, at least in Windows - in Linux with Mate desktop that I use just now it's right Alt or left Alt, but I use the right Alt only anyway)

- if you are accustomed to the German keyboard (or any other similar), you should use the "214" vel. "typewriter's" layout
- if you are accustomed to any other keyboard layout, I recommend the "programmer's" one, since it's the standard used in Poland, actually I don't know anyone who would use the "typewriter's" keyboard and even in Germany I always switch to the "programmer's" layout, not "214", because the latter is just annoying for me. I have always used the "programmer's" layout.

Language / How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish [22]


No. Not "Guest at home, God at home", but "Guest to the home, God to the home".

Compare it with German "in" + accusative or dative.

Now we don't say "w dom", we say "do domu", but it's a fixed expression.

Love / A surprise visit to Poland - need a general advice? Have no idea.. [4]

I wouldn't call myself a specialist in the love matters, not at all, but I don't think a gril from any country would be happy with so direct approach. Although it depends how well you know each other. If you come to Poland, meet her, I think she would be very happy, but about a surprise kiss - I am not sure about that.

Language / How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish [22]

Yes, of course, but it seems that meaning of "home" in English is somehow wider than of "dom" in Polish. We, basically, don't have difference between "house" and "home" (although "dom" has, on the other hand, a narrower meaning than "house", it's very rarely used for just any building, "dom" will almost always be a house in which people live), we have a single word: "dom". That's why not all the connotations of the English word "home" can be transferred to the Polish word "dom".

Although the differences are so tiny that it won't probably matter at all.

Language / How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish [22]

Yes, it's more a scientific or specialistic term.

USA, Canada / Package sent to USA stuck in Origin Post Preparing Shipment in Poland [6]

My experience with the Polish post is rather good. I sent a few letters internationally between Poland and Germany, and while they were leaving Poland almost immiediately, the same with reaching the addressee once they entered Poland, the German post was holding them for a long time, or once even failed to deliver a letter.

I have once even sent a letter from Poland to Poland - but with a return address in Germany. And with advice of receipt. So the letter was sent domestically, but the advice of receipt, with the signature of the addressee, had to be delivered to Germany. At the post office they didn't really know how to handle it, because their computer system just doesn't take such a possibility into account (the lady said that before computers there would be no problem at all), but they did it. It came to Germany. Later than the reply to the letter (sent by the addressee after receiving it!), but it came.

And, what's interesting, sending this letter, I filled in two forms for the advice of receipt - the Polish and the international one (I thought that when the advice of receipt has to be delivered abroad, it should be on an international form, but the lady at the post office suggested to fill in both) - and which one came to me to Germany? The Polish one :)

Just let the sender of your parcel file a complaint at his post office. He will get the money back. Maybe he will have to wait a month or two, but he will get it. It's worse if the content was worth more than 10x sending fee, but in such a case he should have declared the value of the parcel content - in such a case he would pay more for the sending, but now he would get the whole amount.

Does it happen that a parcel gets stolen by a post employee? I wouldn't say it happens frequently, but yes, I have heard about such cases. It's not about lack of competency. The post processes so many parcels every day that it's normal they fail to deliver a small amount of them all.

Life / Proper way to format a Polish mailing address when sending to Poland? [23]

[First name] [Family name]
ul. [Street name] [House number] m. [Apartment number]
[Postal code] [City/town name]
POLSKA

Of course you add "m. [Apartment number]" only if there is more than one apartment in the house. The address may also look different in case of villages - if the village has no own post office and belongs to a post office from another village or town, or if the village has no street names.

You should always write the address in such a way, as it is written in the target country. It's the post of the target country who delivers it. For the post employees in the US it's enough to know that the letter goes to Poland - they don't care, where exactly in Poland. So it would be reasonable to write the country name in English rather than in Polish (I usually do it in both languages).

I am not sure about this, but I think that the scheme with the city first, and the street in the next line, was used in the past. If you do it according to the first version (given to you by your mother), the letter will also reach the target, but the second version is the correct one.

USA, Canada / Package sent to USA stuck in Origin Post Preparing Shipment in Poland [6]

You cannot do anything. The sender can make a complaint at the post office from which he sent it. There is a special international form for that (poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2013/10/DMA250.pdf), they will give it to him at the post office. And they will return some money. The value of the parcel content, but there is a limit for that. If I am not mistaken - 10 times the price of sending.

Language / How do you literally translate Home Sweet Home in Polish [22]

There is no expression with such use as "home sweet home".

"Wszędzie dobrze, ale w domu najlepiej" (Everywhere it's good, but at home it's best) will be a rough equivalent. Sometimes I also hear "nie ma to jak w domu" (There is no place like home), but I am not sure if it's not just a copy from a foreign language. "Wszędzie dobrze, ale w domu najlepiej" is definitely Polish.

Life / A rumour about the need to give passport copy when you buy a prepaid sim number in Poland? [23]


What if someone buys a hammer? A drill? A chainsaw? Also ID?

When you throw a plate at someone, you can also kill him.

Let's require ID when someone buys something big or heavy enough to kill someone with that.

Even plastic bags can kill... It often says on the bottom of such a bag, not to give it children to play, because they may suffocate.

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

But I don't want a natural sponge, I want a normal synthetic one, which I could buy for something around 1 euro, and which would be robust.

Travel / Planning a trip to Poland - Krakow, Auschwitz, Zakopane and other places - winter, Christmas [56]

Leaving early enough it shouldn't be a problem. Like you leave, let's say, at 9:00, you are at 12:00 in Zakopane, and at the evening you return to Kraków.

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

By the way, to those from Germany or knowing this country - where do you usually buy bath sponges? In "normal" supermarkets they are almost impossible to find. From what I remember, I managed to buy one in Rossmann - but its quality was very low and it got totally destroyed after 2 months of usage. Now I use one brought from Poland (which was, by the way, a few times cheaper) - I was using it for half a year in Poland before, now I have been using it for the next half a year and there is no sign of destruction. And they usually work for a few years until they just destruct.

I mean a sponge of this type:



(which would be called "gąbka" in Polish)

Not of this type:

[Bath sponge]

(I wouldn't definitely call it "gąbka", it's rather "zmywak")

It's not a problem to buy a dish sponge, but it's really difficult to find a proper bath sponge in the shops here.

Classifieds / Random Classifieds Ads Poland [261]

Well, it's good the oil is organic, and not synthetic :) Synthetic oil can be good for your car, but not necessarily for you to eat :)

Life / Where to buy cosmetic items such as razor and pumice in Poland? [39]

That they sell razors (blades) in their shops in Germany, it doesn't mean automatically, that do the same in their shops in Poland :)

But they should have such a stuff. If you don't have Rossmann in your neighbourhood - you should anyway have a shop selling such stuff. Called "drogeria", "sklep chemiczny", or anything like that.

Such a razor blade is called "żyletka" in Polish - but some people call so safety razors as well, so if you will be asking the shop assistant for help, it might be best to just show a photo :)

Travel / Planning a trip to Poland - Krakow, Auschwitz, Zakopane and other places - winter, Christmas [56]

Talking about snow, the first days with a big snowfall during the winter are always bad (especially exactly the first day), but then, after it, everything works without any problem, regardless of how much snow falls. OK, maybe during actual snowfalls the traffic is a bit slower and more jammed, but definitely not so much as on the first days.

And noone knows why it is so. Every year it happens, every year the media say that the winter surprised the road maintenance service. And it looks like noone learns with that. Maybe it's also a fault of the drivers, who don't exchange the tyres to the winter type on time, but I don't believe in that.

Travel / Planning a trip to Poland - Krakow, Auschwitz, Zakopane and other places - winter, Christmas [56]


It's ok that you are confused, Polish people also get confused with this. It even happens that for example someone boards a wrong train than the one for which he has a ticket (although going to the same town), and gets a fine... Be careful with such things.

The proper website for booking long-distance trains (TLK, IC, EIC and EIP train types) is intercity.pl You make a reservation and just print out your ticket. Even better is to make a booking at the counter, but you have no such a possibility as you are abroad (unless through an intermediary agency, but I don't think it's worth that, they will charge you for the service). You can make a booking max. a month in advance. Sometimes shorter if the schedules are gonna change (and it may be so in your case, there is a big train schedule change in the whole Europe at the beginning of December every year).

Normally if you want to use 2 trains (or more) with a transfer between them (it works also for longer, few-hour, breaks, but if you go there and back to the same station, you need at least two tickets), you can buy a single ticket for the whole route (only in some cases it's better to buy separate tickets due to special offers) - but it doesn't work online. Anyway, it's likely it's better for you to buy tickets online in advance, even if you have to change between two trains (although you must buy separate tickets then), but it depends on the specific case. Also buy them in advance if you want to travel in the rush time (for example just before or just after Christmas), because otherwise you may get no seat (the best is to avoid travelling by train in such a time at all, they are just full and crowded then). And the ticket prices aren't high anyway, so it will probably have no such a meaning for you.

For local trains (Regio and "osobowy") you don't have to make any bookings, because the price is constant regardless of whether you buy the ticket a month before or just before boarding the train. Just be at the station a few minutes before to buy the ticket (sometimes there are queues). Check what a company operates the train you want to take, and look for its sign on the counters, as it happens that not all the counters sell the tickets for trains of all the companies! If there is no open ticket counter, no ticket counter at all, or no ticket counter sells the tickets for the train you want to take, then you can buy the ticket from the railway officer (conductor) on the train, but you must go to him immediately once you board the train (he is usually near the first entrance to the train from its front and you should use this entrance in such a case). It works also for the long-distance trains, except for EIP.

By the way, you can almost always (except for the EIP) buy a ticket on the train once you board it, and the price is the same as at the counter, but if there is an open ticket counter at the station, they will charge you a service fee of something like 5 to 10 PLN.

TLK and IC, as well as the local trains, are very cheap (especially if you buy the ticket early in case of TLK/IC). EIC and EIP have more "western-European" prices, unless you manage to catch a ticket from a special offer (buying it early in advance). The difference between TLK and IC is that IC have better quality. Between EIC and EIP - EIC are standard trains (of high quality though), EIP - high speed trains, they are not much faster than EIC though. In all the trains, except for the local ones, you can choose between the class 1 and class 2, where the class 1 is more expensive but gives more comfort (there is usually less people, and there is more space for the passenger around a seat). A ticket for the class 1 might be a good option especially when you want to travel in the rush time.

The situation with the buses is a bit different since there is really many different companies (on the contrary to the trains, where there are 2 major ones and the others operating almost only locally). There are two possible schemes of buying tickets, depending on the company:

1) the price is constant and you buy the ticket from the driver once you board the bus (sometimes, but not always, you can also do this at the counter at the bus terminal)

2) the price depends on the time when you buy the ticket and you can buy it only online

The first scheme was the basic one, used almost everywhere in Poland (it has been used by the state company from the communist times - PKS - which has been divided into small companies and privatised, as well as adopted by the new small local bus companies emerging on the market), until a Scottish company came to Poland with the style (2), having a lot of success with it. Then the companies, using the scheme (1) until then, started to offer tickets according to the scheme (2), and also that Scottish company (called PolskiBus, so that people may think it's Polish) started to sell tickets at the counters, but not always at the main ticket counters of the bus terminals (sometimes in travel agencies and in other weird places), and for prices higher than online. Now these systems are quite mixed up, and you will find bus companies offering the tickets according to a one style to some extent and according to the other style to some extent.

As a rule of thumb:
- if a company has "PKS" in its name, it will sell tickets according to the style (1), but many of them offer also cheaper tickets to buy online in advance, they usually sell them through the website e-podroznik.pl

- for the buses of the "PolskiBus" company (sometimes it may appear as "Souter Holding"), buy the tickets online
- for all the other companies you must always check it (the websites of the bus companies are often Polish-only, but Google Translate may help), but usually it is the same as for those with "PKS" in their name

You will probably want to take a bus between Kraków and Zakopane, since buses are much faster on this route and they have much a better offer. The main company is Szwagropol. You can buy the ticket from the driver or online on the company website; by buying it on the website you can just be sure that the bus will take you in case it's full. But it shouldn't be a problem since the buses from Kraków to Zakopane are very frequent, and when not Szwagropol, then there are also buses which go through Kraków to Zakopane from the towns around the whole Poland, and you can also use them without any problem.

It's also different for the city buses. For them (as well for the trams, trolleybuses and for the Warsaw subway) you must buy the tickets before boarding the vehicle - either in a ticket vending machine (but not all the cities have them on many stops), or they are also sold by newspaper and small grocery shops. They usually work in such a way that they are valid for some time (for example 20 minutes or 60 minutes; they usually also offer tickets valid for 24 hours) after validating the ticket in a special device on the bus/tram/trolleybus or at the subway gates, which prints the current date, time and vehicle symbol on it (in some cases it may encode it on a magnetic strip as well). Within this time you can change between different vehicles however many times you want, you can also go there and back. Sometimes there might be also tickets for a single ride available, and they work in an exactly the same way with buying and validating them.

As someone has already mentioned, you can also take a plane, which might be good especially between the most remote places like from Kraków to Gdańsk. A company called Ryanair offers cheap flights (although you pay extra if you want to take something more than hand luggage). You may also have a look at the Lot, the Polish national flight operator - although they are more expensive.

Most of the buses don't work on the both Christmas days and on the New Year day, they also reduce their service on the Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (especially in the evening). It's not so bad in case of the trains though, many of them work also on these days. Also the city public transport will reduce its operation, it will probably work like on Sundays.